As local authorities look to make savings in straitened times, Brighton and Hove council is having great success with its scheme to recruit volunteer urban shepherds to tend flocks of sheep that will reduce grass-cutting costs.

Residents with an hour a week to spare are being trained to keep an eye on sheep that are loaned from local farms in East Sussex to graze on land adjacent to housing estates and schools.

The scheme, which was trialled last year in the more rural parts of the borough, is now being extended to urban localities bordering the city.

And such is its popularity that there is now a waiting list for the final training course of the year.

The council says the cost of grass cutting and baling has risen to around £25,000 a year, with one of the most significant increases being disposal of the cut material. In contrast, the urban shepherd scheme costs around £1,800 a year.

Maria Caulfield is one of 73 shepherds, or "lookerers", who is on the council's roster following a one-day course run by professional shepherds, at which she learned how to round up a flock and what to do in an emergency. She says: "We keep an eye out for dogs and round the sheep up if needs be. Last year, we did keep losing one that kept disappearing into the local scout hut. None of us ever worked out how he got there."

For Caulfield, a nurse and Conservative member of Brighton and Hove council, introducing sheep to young urban dwellers was what interested her most about the scheme. "It's important to have grazing in my area for children to see," she says. "As they're growing up in a big city, this is an opportunity for them to learn and see animals working, and to learn to respect them."

She also talks of the environmental benefits, pointing to the regrowth of chalk grassland flowers in the soon-to-be designated South Downs national park. Unlike a mower, which will cut indiscriminately through wildflowers and lizards alike, sheep graze selectively, with the uneven results that support grassy microclimates. Protecting flora and fauna, she says, is just as important, if not more so, than "the small amount of money saved".

The 200-strong flocks of sheep will be grazing at six fenced-off sites this winter – from this month until March – when there are no wild flowers. As well as rural valleys and downs, they are now being brought into more urban settings, such as local nature reserves at Hollingbury and in the deprived Whitehawk Hill area of east Brighton.

David Larkin, one of the council's country rangers behind the urban shepherd scheme, says people from all walks of life have signed up. "Many work in offices in IT, and we have solicitors, plus quite a few retired people," he says.

Shepherds need to be as agile as their charges, able to get around on steep, uneven slopes; spare around one hour a week while the sheep are on site; and have mobile phones so they can receive any updates, phone in reports, and contact the council in case of emergency.